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FEMA's Brown Takes a Backseat
In Katrina Relief Operations

By

Robert Block and

John D. McKinnonStaff Reporters of The Wall Street Journal

Updated Sept. 10, 2005 11:18 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration began the politically sensitive job of changing the federal machinery that responded haltingly to Hurricane Katrina, removing Michael Brown, the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, from his post spearheading relief operations on the Gulf Coast.

Mr. Brown has become a lightning rod for criticism over the government's slow and bungled response to the hurricane. More than that, the central role FEMA played in that response has become a political problem for President Bush...